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What kind of creature is Nessie the Loch Ness Monster?
THERE have been sightings of the mysterious beast lurking in the waters of Loch Ness for years. Scotland Now looks at the different creatures that could be Nessie.
The legendary Loch Ness monster Nessie
WE all know that the Loch Ness Monster definitely exists.
There have been sightings of the mysterious creature lurking beneath the dark waters of Loch Ness for hundreds of years.
However, the big question that has never been answered is, just what kind of a monster is Nessie?
Scotland Now takes a look at the different creatures that could have been considered as the Loch Ness Monster over the years.
Is Nessie an Elephant?
Elephant
A number of experts have suggested sightings of Nessie reported in the 1930s could have been caused by a travelling circus bathing their elephants in the loch.
In 1933, circus owner Bertram Mills offered £20,000 to anyone who could capture the Loch Ness Monster for him.
The Bertram Mills Circus toured the country and travelled past Loch Ness to Inverness.
Is Nessie an overgrown eel?
Eel
Many people suggest Nessie could be an overgrown eel.
Eels are known to live in Loch Ness, but cannot raise themselves above the water in the way sightings of Nessie have been reported over the years.
They also swim with a sideways motion.
Could Nessie be a Seal?
Seal
Seals are known to follow salmon upstream and into Loch Ness on occassion.
But they do not have long necks, which the monster is usually described as having.
Computer-generated graphic of a Plesiosaur
Pleasiosaur
Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles that became extinct more than 65million years ago.
They lived at the same time as the dinosaurs but are not classed as dinosaurs themselves as the giant marine reptiles were cold-blooded.
But if plesiosaurs survived, there would need to be a enough to have bred over the years. Loch Ness wasn’t formed until the end of the last Ice Age just 10,000 years ago, so where did they live until then?
They would also need to surface frequently for air.
In 2003, a fossilised vertebra of a plesiosaur was found on the shore of Loch Ness.
Most people believed it was placed there as a hoax, as stones in the area are not of the type to bear fossils.
“What kind of creature is Nessie the Loch Ness Monster?”
An imaginary one based on the ancient local stories of water horse/kelpies, basically an undertow dragging people down to the bottom and drowning them. Horse being a typical totem used for something that transports a person from A to B.